Biography
Paul Rozario was born in 1971 in Singapore and spent his early childhood there. Two things marked out this mischievous youngster--a love of travel (he was on an airplane within a couple of months of being born) and reading (he won a contest for reading the most number books at the local library when he was 10). His love of languages saw him take up Mandarin and French at school, both of which he is fluent in, and he has since added Amharic and Italian to his linguistic prowess.
Paul graduated with a law degree from Trinity College, Oxford University in 1995 and earned a Masters in Eastern and African Christianity from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies in 1998. Following that, he traveled to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti to live and work for a year.
Paul began his career in international publishing as an editor with Marshall Cavendish International Asia upon his return to Singapore. He edited over 30 books in his time with them and then left for Australia, where he began writing in a quiet Queensland coastal community.
Two years and 7 books later, Paul moved to New York to take in the publishing scene there. He breezed through the Summer Publishing Institute at New York University’s Center for Publishing in 2004. His 8th book -- a travel narrative that retraces the voyages of the great Chinese eunuch-admiral Zheng He -- was published in the summer of 2005 and is available online at Amazon.
Paul returned to New York in the fall of 2006 to pursue more publishing studies. He graduated with a Masters in Publishing from New York University in 2006. Following an internship at Curtis Brown, he set up The Paul Rozario Agency to build awareness in New York publishing circles of the distinctive literary voices from Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries. This proved far more challenging than expected, and the agency is no longer accepting submissions. However, he did co-found the Singapore Literature Festival in New York in 2014, as well as the Second Saturday reading series that showcases American and Asian voices. Both literary events are in their fourth year.
Paul now spends his time between New York, Singapore and Europe writing and leading workshops as a certified Amherst Writers & Artists facilitator through his literary venture Safe Space Stories.
